May 20th 10-12pm
Nozhem First Peoples’ Performance Space
Enwayaang Building, Gzowski College
Facilitated by Italian scholar Dr. Andrea Brunello, Trent’s Distinguished Visiting Teaching Scholar in residence, this public lecture engages audiences in the structure of stories to empower them to develop dynamic stories that they can use to captivate audiences in their teaching practice, research dissemination, and work.
“It can be argued that our intelligence and overall cognitive development are strictly linked to our ability to devise and narrate stories. Our most basic tools of communication and persuasion are built on our ability to tell stories that are more interesting than those of others. After all, time is a limited asset and so is our ability to pay attention, share ideas, alert others and gain new knowledge. Modern affective heuristics are based on this principle, that is: when it is too difficult for a person to determine what to think about a particular situation, they may instead subconsciously default to the easier question of determining how the situation makes them feel. The historian Yuval Noah Harari put it all quite effectively: “Humans think in stories
rather than in
facts, numbers or equations,
and the simpler the story, the better” (21 Lessons for the 21st Century).”
- Dr. Andrea Brunello
Dr. Andrea Brunello
Researcher, playwright, director, actor, teacher, science communicator and podcaster, Andrea Brunello works at the boundary between theatre and science. He is a graduate of the three-year program “SAT - SCHOOL AFTER THEATRE advanced training program” led by the Russian director and pedagogue Jurij Alschitz and affiliated with the EATC/Russian Academy of Theatre Arts (GITIS) of Moscow (Russia). On the scientific side, Andrea holds a Bachelor’s degree in Physics and Mathematics from Cornell University and a Ph.D. in Physics from Stony Brook University (New York). He is also a graduate of the University of Trento’s (Italy) Master’s in Communication of Science and Innovation (SCICOMM). Andrea teaches science storytelling theory and practice in the Master’s in Communication of Science and Innovation and in the Physics Department at the University of Trento (Italy). He also teaches soft skills science storytelling in the Physics and Astronomy Department at the University of Bologna. He is the founder and director of the Portland Theatre of Trento and of the Arditodesìo Company. Since 2012, he has curated the Jet Propulsion Theatre Project which aims to connect theatre with science and, starting in 2017, he has been the artistic director of Teatro della Meraviglia, a science theatre festival held annually in Trento. Andrea is member of the scientific committee “Theatre about Science - International Conference” (Coimbra, Portugal) and of the board of directors of EUSEA - the European Science Engagement Association.
This free event is generously supported by the Trent Teaching Commons' Distinguished Visiting Teaching Scholars Endowment Fund.